


Midnight Lullabies

by jobixen



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Apartment, Fluff, M/M, Music Student Akaashi Keiji, One Shot, University Student Akaashi Keiji, University Student Bokuto Koutarou
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:41:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29670189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jobixen/pseuds/jobixen
Summary: Cheap apartments meant thin walls.And thin walls meant Bokuto Koutaro could hear his neighbour, Akaashi Keiji, sing all night long.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji & Bokuto Koutarou, Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou
Comments: 5
Kudos: 67





	Midnight Lullabies

**BOKUTO**

_No thoughts. Head Empty. Just my new neighbour’s voice as he sings my favorite song._ Bokuto giggled, read what he typed two more times to make sure there’s no typographical error, and hit sent tweet.

Before he could even place down his phone on his table, it vibrated, notifying that he received a reply on his tweet already. _“I bet he doesn’t sound as good as I did, I miss being neighbours with you my sweet-lovely bro,”_ his friend Kuroo tweeted. Under it, one more reply reads: _“Stop listening in on your neighbours, creep,”_ that one was from Tsukishima.

Bokuto grinned and typed away on his phone with some clever reply that would match Kuroo’s sweetness and Tsukishima’s saltiness. He stayed for five more minutes tweeting and arguing with the two on twitter before he finally put his phone down, and got back to his thesis.

He had to finish the whole third chapter by the end of the week, and it’s already Thursday. So, naturally, his brain chose to stop working that night. He’s been sitting on his bed with his laptop balanced on his lap, and staring at his word document for 2 hours now. On any other days, when it’s not really urgent, he can write full-length essays in an hour; but tonight he can’t even form a single sentence. And as if the mental block wasn’t enough, his neighbour was being equally unhelpful with his sweet honey voice singing ballad songs.

His studio-type apartment was cheap and almost perfect for a college student with low income from sideline jobs. It was the normal size — not too big, not too small — and some appliances came with the room too, he didn’t even have to buy a microwave or a bed frame when he moved in. There was only one issue: you can hear your neighbour through the walls. Okay, not exactly the walls. Bokuto’s bed was built in beside the shared wall with his only neighbour in the fourth floor, and on the wall is an electric outlet, about one ruler above his head when he’s sleeping — totally unsafe, but well, it’s a cheap apartment — adjacent to that, on the other side of the wall is the neighbour’s own outlet.

Basically, there’s a hole that goes directly through between Bokuto’s and his neighbour’s apartment, only masked by a plastic wall socket and some electric wires.

When he first moved in, Bokuto was actually delighted with the place. It was only one ride away from his university, and he’s only sharing the floor with another college student.

Everything was good and life was perfect.

And then his first night in the apartment came, and what came with it are his neighbour’s rated-18 sinful noises.

That night he learned that the walls were too thin for his comfort, and that his neighbour’s name is Kuroo — at least that’s what he heard from the joyous scream.

Being a university student, Bokuto never really had the time to complain to his landlord or confront his happy neighbour, so it went on for weeks. Even until today, he swears that it was the longest weeks of his life. The noises made him sulky, and not in the-neighbours-are-too-active-in-their-sex-life-and-i-can’t-sleep-i’m-angry-and-tired kind, instead he was sulky because he felt like he was eavesdropping on this Kuroo-person’s private life. He felt bad for Kuroo. And when he feels bad, he can get very emotional.

The sulking gets to the point that he couldn’t take it anymore, so he sat in front of Kuroo’s door until he arrived, which didn’t happen until many hours later. When he did, Bokuto explained bout hearing all the noises and repeatedly apologized. Contrary to the latter’s dismay, Kuroo only laughed, apologized, and invited him to dinner. After that, the noises from Kuroo disappeared, and as for their friendship: the rest was history.

 _Kuroo must have taken off whatever he covered that outlet with when he moved out._ Bokuto cursed inwardly. Before, he tried a bunch of stuff to cover the outlet, but it never worked. The only thing that did work was when Kuroo tried it on his side, and the latter was never really one to reveal his tricks.

Bokuto sighed. He’s never going to finish this thesis tonight. He gave up, put his laptop into its place, and positioned himself to sleep on his bed. He was only beginning to close his eyes when his neighbour’s music changed from ballad to rock.

Fuck it. Bokuto has had enough of this. He sat upright and decided to do something that his friend Tsukishima will describe as “the most Bokuto thing ever”, with all the force and strength his arms have from his years of experience in being an ace player in volleyball — he knocked on the outlet.

**AKAASHI**

Nope. No. This was the only apartment Akaashi liked after months of dorm-hunting. So no, he would not accept that this room is haunted.

But he has opened and closed the door three times, and looked for rats or cockroaches all over the place — and there was neither a person or pest visitor. There was no way either of those were making the knocking noise.

At first, Akaashi thought he was imagining things. There was a three-rap knock, and yet there was no one behind his front door, so he just returned to his bed and fixed his attention in playing his guitar. But there was another knock, and off he went again to do the same things. The knocking was loud and has about a minute interval in between. It’s driving Akaashi mad.

Defeated, he climbed back to his bed and let his fingers strum the strings absentmindedly. He spent the next ten minutes like that, strumming chords, singing absentmindedly, and staring into nothingness. It was about 9 minutes in when he noticed that the knocking has stopped. He sighed, and played more eagerly.

“Can you, like, play something soothing?”

Akaashi sat frozen on his position. _Where the hell did that voice came from?_ It was too clear to be from his imagination, and too warm to be from a ghost.

“Uhm, hello? Where are you?” Akaashi answered, trying really hard to keep his voice steady. His eyes roamed the room, looking for something that could give out the talking stranger.

“Oh, yeah, I’m your neighbour from the outlet on your wall.” Akaashi eyes went straight to the outlet by his bed. He crawled closer, peeping through the mini slits meant for plugs — there was only darkness.

“This goes through yours?” Akaashi asked, thinking if he’d done anything in his bed that he wouldn’t want his neighbour to hear in the two-days that he moved in.

“It does. It’s like a telephone thingy... Ok, that was dumb, it’s not really like a telephone thingy”

“Oh”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop or anything.”

“No. It’s okay; I don’t think you wanted to.”

“Yeah, it’s just that it’s late, and I want to sleep”

Akaashi’s eye grew two times as large. He was pestering his neighbour with his guitar and singing. He can’t afford to get evicted when he’s only starting to settle. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll stop,” he said.

“No, no, no. I don’t mean you should stop”

“You don’t?” This was confusing Akaashi.

“I just thought maybe you could sing something more sleepy”

_More sleepy?_ His neighbour was kinda weird. Nevertheless, Akaashi will do anything to keep this apartment; he doesn’t want another noise complaint to be the reason why he’ll have to move back to his parents’ house. “Okay.” He started strumming a familiar tune, his voice immediately following after, humming to compensate with the missing lyrics. He slowly lied down on his back, closed his eyes, and let his fingers move to the memorized pattern.

Akaashi had a knack for lullabies. His voice melts perfectly with soft songs, and people loved him for it. He knew countless songs with actual lyrics, so it’s quite a wonder why he chose to play the one song he doesn’t know the words to for his neighbour.

He first heard this song two years ago; he was standing on the sidewalk in one of the many busy streets of Tokyo, waiting patiently for the bus to arrive. A nearby coffee shop was playing the song — the voice of the singer was muffled through the glass, but Akaashi unconsciously picked out the tune, and it stuck with him ever since.

“Hey, what’s your name?” his neighbour’s voice was tired and sleepy. Akaashi kept playing.

“Akaashi Keiji, you?”

“Bokuto Koutarou”

Akaashi nodded, forgetting for a moment that his neighbour can’t see him. He continued humming the missing phrases of the song with his eyes shut. He knows the chords by heart, and his fingers doesn’t need any more guidance — it’s like the strings were an extension of him — his body was so used to it.

He could tell that Bokuto was falling asleep already because the next time he spoke, his voice was extra deep and almost rough, “Hey, Akaashi.”

“Hhmmm?”

“Thank you. That’s my favorite song.”

That was when everything stopped.

Akaashi’s eyes flew open, and his fingers stopped abruptly in a middle of a strum, resulting a loud broken sound from his guitar.

“What happened?” Bokuto’s worried voice brought Akaashi back to his senses. “Oh no. Did I say something wrong?” his neighbour continued.

“No.” This night was rapidly getting weirder and weirder, and as much as Akaashi would not like to admit, it was the nice kind of weird.

“Why did you stop like that though? Were you falling asleep? Oh, I woke you up by asking what’s wrong, I’m sorry.” Bokuto said, sounding really sad. He was not entirely wrong, Akaashi was only about to drift into total relaxation when he dropped the bomb. Well, at least it’s both of them that don’t seem sleepy now.

“No, not at all. Just that—“

“Just what?”

“What do you mean with the song being your favorite? You mean you know the song?”

“Well yeah? Isn’t it a requirement to know the song before it becomes your favorite?” Bokuto laughed. Akaashi noted that his neighbour’s mood is highly inconsistent.

“What’s the title?”

“Huh? Is this a test?”

“Just answer me, Bokuto.”

“Okay. It’s Dance with Me by Beabadoobee”

Akaashi reached out to his phone on the bedside table so fast that he was sure he fractured a bone but that’s not really a priority now. He clicked on his spotify application, typed the song title and hit play.

_No fucking way._

This was the song. And it only took him two years of searching and a sketchy neighbour to find it. Totally worth it.

His thoughts were interrupted when the said neighbour whispered, “Akaashi... you’ve been silent for a while now, are you asleep?”

“No. Thank you for telling me the title of the song.”

“You’re welcome? But don’t you already know that?”

“I don’t really. I was just playing by ear,” he said matter-of-factly

“Wow. That’s amazing. You don’t know the song but you played it so well!” Bokuto sounded like a kindergarten amazed by his favorite hero.

“I heard it two years ago and I’ve been trying to find it since. I remembered it differently though, it was mellower in my mind. That’s why I couldn’t find it, I think, because I was looking at the wrong genre,” Akaashi said, suddenly having the urge to tell his whole life story to the stranger next door.

“Wow. That must be fate then.”

Akaashi only laughed at his neighbour’s reply. He only knew three things about the guy: (1) his name is Bokuto Koutaro; (2) he lives on the same floor on the same building of Akaashi; and (3) his favorite song is the same song Akaashi’s been humming to for the past 24 months. And yet the guitarist already felt warm with him.

“Good night, Akaashi,” the neighbour’s deep sleepy voice was back.

“It’s 2:44, it’s barely night.”

“Good midnight then.”

Crazy-weird, but it was a good midnight, indeed.

**BOKUTO**

The world seemed like it’s against Bokuto Koutaro, 21, 3rd year student, major in Sports Science, resident of Kyosako Building. Because he was having the worst day of his life – okay, probably not the worst day, but it’s certainly on the top twenty (Bokuto had a lot of worst days). It started with when he left his wallet in his apartment, and only realized it when he’s on the train station, so he had to walk all the way back to his home to get it. Then, he was 45 minutes late for his first class, and missed taking a surprise quiz. His professor wouldn’t let him have a special/remedial quiz, because according to him, “ _You need to be more responsible”._ Bokuto thinks he’s plenty responsible enough, and that his professor can go suck it. And it only went worse after that, he was supposed to eat lunch with his friend, Yukie, but she suddenly had an emergency and cancelled – which he understood. So Bokuto had to eat alone in the noisy cafeteria of their university – which he hated. If there’s anything Bokuto hated the most in the world, it would be feeling lonely in a room of crowded people. He can’t help it, Bokuto was a star, an ace, a popular varsity, he was used to being surrounded by friends and admirers – he was not used to being alone.

He was as sulky as a cat wet from a rain. Which reminded him of a certain cat person, Kenma, he was Kuroo’s boyfriend and Bokuto’s very good friend. So he texted the former setter – because Kuroo was out of town, therefore unavailable – to come eat or drink coffee with him, to which Kenma replied with the words: _“I would enjoy that but I’m busy right now, I’m sorry,”_ and that didn’t improve Bokuto’s mood. He tried to cheer himself up by buying an ice cream, but that only made his hands sticky. To top everything off, the cat-wet-from-the-rain metaphor came true because it suddenly started raining when he was walking home, and he didn’t have an umbrella with him. It seems like he’s forgetting everything these days.

Bokuto was wet, cold, and really-really sad. He gave up trying to run because he was already soaked, thus, he was just walking real slow under the gloomy skies of Tokyo. He started reflecting on his shitty ass day and how it came to be. It all started when he left his wallet, which wouldn’t have happen if he wasn’t so much in a rush that morning. He had to because he woke up 30 minutes later than he should, and had lesser time to prepare. So if you would think about it, this is actually because he didn’t slept early the night before – and is that Bokuto’s fault? No. Well, actually, it was partially his fault. He spent the night talking with his neighbour Akaashi – which he’s been doing for almost two weeks now – it was so pleasant that he actually lost track of the time and ended up staying up until four in the morning.

That Akaashi. Bokuto wanted to befriend him so much. He was nice, funny, and he had a great voice, but he never seems to be around in the morning. After the night they first talked, Bokuto left a yogurt in front of Akaashi’s door, but he couldn’t wait for the latter to wake up because he had to go to school. That evening Akaashi was the first one to speak through their walls to thank Bokuto, the older was glad and they talked for hours. It has become a routine ever since.

Looking back, Bokuto realized that he was also partly in a foul mood already before all the disasters happened today, and it was because he really wanted to hang out with his neighbour, but he haven’t and he couldn’t. In fact, he has never seen Akaashi in person ever. He always had to leave early in the morning and whenever he goes home Akaashi was always not around. At night, he’s too tired to ask his kind neighbour to hang out together.

Their nightly talks through the walls were the highlights of Bokuto’s days. The neighbour was really interesting, and he would always sing lullabies for the older so he could sleep well. Bokuto came to find out – in their conversations – that Akaashi Keiji is a music major in another university, a year younger than Bokuto, a song writer, also a former volleyball player, and possibly a vampire (this one Bokuto concluded all on his own, because the boy never seems to be seen when the sun is up).

Nevertheless, it was fun talking with him.

When Bokuto arrived at his building, he was dripping wet and he had to walk really carefully, unless he wanted to slip in the smooth floor. He climbed up straight to his floor, without bothering to check his mails in the receiving area; that would be for another time. He walked alongside a man who was clad in a grey hoodie that’s too larger than his size. If it was any other day, Bokuto would’ve strike up a conversation, but today, he wasn’t in his right calibre. The man didn’t seem to care either, he just walked quietly, and then stopping to answer his ringing phone. Bokuto simply walked pass him, looking curiously over his shoulder to get a sight of the man’s face. The latter noticed this and bring himself to smile at Bokuto before shifting his whole attention to the phone call.

_That smile could heal the world._ Bokuto smiled back and continued walking. The stranger was, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful human Bokuto has ever seen. And that was saying a lot, because Bokuto knows a lot of beautiful people. In the 10 seconds that Bokuto has glimpsed his face, he already decided that the man deserved to be featured in every billboard in Tokyo. He had blue eyes, and a really _really_ pretty smile. Just by looking at him, it made Bokuto’s day 100x better.

When he arrived at his door, there was a white plastic bag hanging from his door knob. He picked it up, opened it, and found a little note inside. It reads, _Yo, Koutaro! I felt bad for ditching you in lunch so I got this delivered to your house. Surprise! ALSO my nan’s okay now. I’ll catch up with you later xx. – Shirofuku Yukie._ Bokuto examined the contents of the bag; there was two bottles of yogurt, two onigiris, and a banana. Bokuto couldn’t help but smile, Yukie was one his best friends, and though she may not seem like it, she was really thoughtful.

Bokuto was busy rummaging through the bag when a voice beside him said, “That from your girlfriend?” Bokuto was startled; he turned at the speaker’s direction. It was the beautiful man from earlier, Bokuto stood frozen to the ground. “She must really like you.” The man had a smile on his face, but it wasn’t the same one he gave previously. It wasn’t reaching his eyes, the smile looked strained, almost as if he was disappointed, but surely Bokuto was just imaging that.

The stranger then opened the door beside Bokuto’s and entered without anymore words. Living the latter dumfounded and frozen outside.

The beautiful man sounded familiar.

The beautiful man entered the apartment beside Bokuto’s.

The beautiful man was his neighbour.

It turns out Akaashi Keiji is not a vampire after all.

Bokuto paced around his apartment floor, thinking of the right next step. He was now clean and dry, as if the rain never happened at all. And his mind was a mess. His first interaction with Akaashi was not like he imagined, and it took him by surprise. Akaashi’s physical appearance was not like he imagined, it was better, and that also took him by surprise.

He wasn’t sure if he could just call his neighbour through the walls, since they never actually did that in the morning before. So instead, he picked up the bag of food from Yukie, went out, and knocked at the boy next door.

Akaashi opened three knocks later.

“I thought you were knocking through the walls again, it took me a while to figure it was coming from the door.” the younger greeted. Bokuto got a clearer and closer look at Akaashi now. He had short black wavy hair, thick eyebrows, blue eyes, sharp nose, thin lips, and an overall soft look. He was still wearing the hoodie, he looked like someone you would double-take at when you see them. Even when he wasn’t smiling like he did the first time, he was absolutely gorgeous. If the god(s) really had favourites, Akaashi Keiji was one. “So, what’s up?”

“You wanna eat with me?” Bokuto grinned and raised the bag; hiding all the anxious feeling in his stomach with his blinding teeth. Akaashi stepped out of the way and beckoned Bokuto inside his apartment. It was the same studio-type and the same size as Bokuto’s but it looked entirely different, there were musical instruments laid here and there, even his bed had his ukulele. The whole room was screaming ‘Akaashi’ all over it.

“Wouldn’t your girlfriend hate it if you let another person eat the food she brought you?” Akaashi asked.

_Oh, so that’s what he meant with the comment earlier_.

“I don’t have a girlfriend,” Bokuto laid the contents on Akaashi’s table. “This is all from my best friend who feels bad for ditching me today. She won’t get mad. To be honest, I don’t think she cares if I eat this or not.” This statement brought a smile in Akaashi’s face, the beautiful kind; which also brought too many thoughts to Bokuto’s brain all at once.

When the younger didn’t seem to have anything to say, Bokuto started, “I don’t know how – because I totally imagined you differently – but you look exactly like you talked.” Akaashi could only stare back at Bokuto at this comment. That was not something you hear every day.

“Was that weird?” Bokuto tilted his head to the right.

“Yes.”

“Is that bad?”

“No.” Akaashi giggled. He raised the onigiri to his mouth and started eating. Bokuto took this as a good thing.

After eating and bickering around each other – which was mostly prompted by Bokuto. The two settled down in Akaashi’s bed, the latter sitting with his ukulele in his hand, and the former sitting across him.

“Can you sing me a song?”

“Sure”

“Okay, o-m-g.”

Akaashi laughed at the older’s remarks, and damn he was beautiful. His eyes were squinted, and his lips were stretched perfectly across his face. Happiness looks so good on him that Bokuto was already determined to make him happy every day for the rest of his life. Due to this, Bokuto’s ears redden, he suddenly feels hot all over, and that knot in his stomach was definitely butterflies. “Why are you laughing?” _Please don’t stop._

“Because you look so honoured with me singing for you, as if you haven’t already heard me sang every night for weeks.”

“This is different. I get to see your face this time.”

Akaashi smiled once more, making the butterflies in Bokuto’s stomach fly straight to his heart. The younger started strumming and softly sang out the lyrics to Bokuto’s favourite song; the same song Akaashi looked for in years; the same song he sang the first night they talked. The older watched him with eyes determined to never miss a thing.

Well, maybe this wasn’t such a bad day after all.

Maybe, lullabies don’t always have to be sung at night – or in Bokuto’s case: midnight.

Maybe Bokuto doesn’t really hate the thin walls of his apartment; after all, it gave him both Kuroo and Akaashi. One is his best friend, who’s probably going to be the best man at his future wedding and the godfather of his future kids. And another is this beautiful person, who’s singing all the right notes and all the right lyrics.

If anything, maybe Bokuto doesn’t have to worry about the thin walls ever again.


End file.
